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Intellivision

    The elderly among you will get a kick out of this picture. Yes, those are Intellivision Games, made by Mattel, back in the 1970's (?) or 1980's. Yes, I was an adult at that time. Yes, this was Atari's competitor, which never really seemed to catch on, though it was a better gaming system, in my opinion.
     The graphics were simplistic by today's standards, but the games were a lot of fun and I played them for untold hours. They provided a welcome diversion from studying Nuclear Theory. My favorite games were Space Armada, Nightstalker and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
      Space Armada was like Space Invaders, but much cooler. The farther you went, the cooler it got. There were invisible creatures that you could only locate by watching them eat your defenses. There were flying saucers that went back and forth at the top of the screen and later in the game would descend to the bottom and apply the killing blow. If you shot one, you got a new bunker. I played this game well past the point reached by my peers and really loved it.
      Nightstalker was another fun game. Your stick man had a safe house, in a maze. When he ventured forth, bats, spiders and a variety of robots attacked him. You had a gun that shot very slow-moving bullets. Sometimes the robots could dodge the pellets by ducking around the corners of the maze. It was full of strategy. I would jump out of the refuge, shoot, and go back in. It would frustrate the evil robots. Some robots took more bullets to kill.
     Another favorite was Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. You were on an adventure in a cave. You felt your way around in the dark, knowing that there were snakes and dragons concealed. They were just lying in wait, hoping to jump your bones. If you crept around, slowly, you could hear their breathing, or hissing, before the attack, and shoot an arrow into the hole. At this point the creature would utter a roar of pain and rage, rush out and try to chomp on your behindus. The tension was palpable when you heard their growls from the darkness.
    Then they came out with the Intellivoice feature. The game would talk to you and offer commentary, which was very cutting-edge technology for that time. There was this one game called B-17 Bomber. The voice was done in a very country voice with a slow drawl in a southern accent. It was funny. Actually, the guy sounded sort of like me...
    The games came with plastic overlays which you slid into grooves on the controllers. In this manner you could see what each button did.
    We wore out the device and they quit making them. A few years ago, I saw one in the Want Ads and drove a hundred miles to buy a used, ancient device and all the games which the dude had. He almost changed his mind and clung to the box a moment as I was leaving. I rarely play it anymore. Never, actually.
    Is it any wonder that I vege out with I-Pad games, considering my history with Intellivision? It is funny, though; from the early 1980's to the advent of the I-Pad, I never played a single video game. No X-Box, no Playstation. Typically I overindulge a hobby for a few years, then cast it aside with apparent disdain. Will the I-Pad find a similar fate? Time will tell.
I'm CE Wills.
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